Barcelona have made an offer of 20 million euros to Bayer Leverkusen for central defender Jonathan Tah. The idea of Deco’s management is to reinforce their back line due to the injury to Andreas Christensen and the possible departure of Eric Garcia. Xabi Alonso’s man ends his contract on 30 June 2025, so the Cules hope to be able to negotiate at a lower price.

On Wednesday morning, the newspaper ‘Marca’ reported that Barcelona were looking for a new centre-back. By early afternoon, ‘Mundo Deportivo’ specified that it was Jonathan Tah, who plays for Bayer Leverkusen. His contract expires this season and the offices of Montjuic have put an offer of 20 million euros on the table of the BayArena side.

That is well below his market value of 33.9 million, but the Catalans hope to be able to negotiate down the price with just ten months left on his contract with Xabi Alonso’s side. He has just won the Bundesliga as a key player for the Spanish coach, so it should come as no surprise that he would be happy to continue in the dressing room where he has broken his record for games played and even goals scored as a defender.

The German was in Julian Nagelsmann’s squad for this summer’s European Championship, when he was knocked out by Spain in the quarter-finals after starting the entire tournament. On his return to club duty, he came off the bench for the Super Cup tie against Stuttgart and returned to his boss’s starting line-up for the domestic clash with Borussia Monchengladbach.

Jonathan Tah has been at Bayer Leverkusen since July 2015, when he left Hamburger for 7.5 million euros. This is another area in which Barcelona have a good chance of convincing the German club: after nearly a decade with the club, that payment should be more than amortised, at least in sporting terms, by those who invested in him, who can now round off his stay with a juicy sale.